StarCrossed
by Elissar
Summary: Starfire narrowly escapes death, but wakes up in a parallel universe where she's already dead, and the remaining Titans are fighting for city harder than ever. Can they cope with her return? And will her own friends be able to find a way to get her back?
1. Ghosts from the Past

A/N: Read and enjoy.

Disclaimer: I do not own Teen Titans.

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She opened the door and quickly put a hand up to shield her eyes. The door at the top of the stairs to the roof faced east, and the brilliant light of the rising sun hit her with full force. She squinted from beneath her hand and saw a silhouette against the brightening horizon. 

The new orange light felt warm against her skin; it seemed to cut right through the cool morning air as she walked over to the edge of the roof, and sat down next to the silhouette. They sat there together, in silence for a moment before he spoke.

"Beautiful view, isn't it."

"Yes, Robin," she looked over at him, he had stopped looking out and was looking right at her "I have always found the sunrises on this planet to be most enjoya—" he leaned over and their lips met, she was surprised for a moment, but responded to him enthusiastically.

"I wasn't talking about the sunrise." He breathed as they broke for a moment before he brushed aside her hair and they kissed again. She heard something in the background, music, but it was hard for her to concentrate on it, something about Good Vibrations.

Starfire's eyes fluttered open groggily, she felt a chill run through her and realized her blanket was only covering the lower right half of her body. She could hear the alarm clock on the headboard clearly now, softly playing "Good Vibrations". She made a mental note to find whatever beach it was those boys lived on and kill them.

She continued to lay in her bed, unwilling to move as she tried to retain her extremely pleasant reverie, lest further stirrings jar the rest of the dream out of her mind. After a few minutes, she realized nothing more would be coming back to her, and as she figured her chances of returning to the dream were almost zero, she decided to get up with her alarm clock for once after all. She sat up and turned around to turn off the two other alarms she had set to go off in succession; she always ignored at least two of them, and had become annoyed at having to hit the snooze button on one clock so many times in the morning.

Her legs swung off the bed and she stood up. The blinds on her window were open and she looked out over the bay to the city she was charged with defending, many of the lights still on, or just turned on by people up even earlier than herself. The night was passing but the sun still wasn't up, leaving the air and sky over the city a pale gray hue.

She showered and dressed quickly, forgetting to brush her teeth as she walked out the door, but then turning back to finish once she'd remembered. She walked down the hallway towards the kitchen; she passed Robin's room. She stopped and walked over to it. She raised her hand to knock, but then reconsidered it and turned back towards the kitchen. She didn't want to wake him, not that he probably wasn't already up, he was always up before everyone, but she didn't want to risk it.

Just before getting to the large combination living room and kitchen, she decided to go upstairs. She turned down a side hallway and walked to the end, stopping at a door with stair symbol on it. She climbed quickly up the three flights, stopping a moment at the door, then opening it determinedly.

The warm rising sun splashed across her face and she had to shield her eyes. She squinted to where she imagined Robin to be, but there was no one there. No silhouette to observe the sunrise with her. She turned around, crestfallen. She'd been stupid to give into such hopes. It was only a dream, but still, it felt…it felt so real to her; she had so desperately wanted to believe it had happened. Or would happen. Things just hadn't been the same after they got back from Tokyo last month. For a few days, everything was wonderful, but it seemed like after that, he didn't know what to do. She didn't know what to do. It seemed to have fallen away, and things had just gone back to normal, only, things weren't back to normal. The few exchanges she'd had with Robin since then had been awkward at best, and they'd gotten virtually no time alone together because they villains of Jump City had seemed to find new purpose in their work and were now robbing, ransoming, and destroying the city on a daily basis.

But because of how she felt, and how she thought he _must_ feel, she couldn't just forget anything had ever happened. Perhaps today was the day. Yes, today she would set things right again, make it all work again. She immerged from the stairs and made her way back to the kitchen.

"Morning, Starfire." Robin greeted her as he poured a cup of coffee then replaced the pot.

She let out a small 'eep' and responded as happily as she could manage in her surprise at being shaken out of her thoughts by the very person she had just been making strong determinations about.

"Would you like a cup of coffee?" He asked, pulling down a mug from an open cabinet.

"Yes, please." Her reply was muted as she looked at the floor.

"Star, I've been wanting to talk about—" just then he saw Beast Boy and Cyborg walk through the archway and into the living room.

"Morning Guys!" Beast Boy called, waving his arm wildly, as though he was much more than ten feet away, and wanted to make sure they could see him.

"Good Morning, Friends!" Starfire cried, happy to be distracted. Later, she thought, she wasn't ready now, but she would definitely do it later. Definitely.

After Raven joined them, there was the usual fight about who would be making what, and whether or not it would be in its normal form, or the vegetarian version. Eventually, Cyborg and Beast Boy agreed to each make half of the traditionally large Saturday morning breakfast, and all five Titans eat well, save for the two eyeing each others creations with marked contempt.

Robin got up to start clearing the table and took a few plates over to the sink. Starfire jumped up from her own seat to help and walked up next to him.

"Robin, I—" But she was cut off by the blaring of the alarm. Robin turned from her and ran over to the computer consol, where Cyborg was already at work, trying to find out what the situation was.

"Will somebody please shut that thing off?" An annoyed looking Raven asked, her fingers plugging her ears.

"I've got it, I've got it." Cyborg responded, not taking his eyes off the computer screen as he typed furiously, Robin leaning over his shoulder. The deafening sound stopped, but the flashing red lights remained on throughout the room.

Starfire was still standing, looking at the place where Robin stood only a few moments before. She looked down at the mug she was twirling absentmindedly in her hands, sighed heavily, and tossed it into the water-filled sink, where it splashed and landed on the metal bottom with a plunk. She walked over to the computer terminal where the other four Titans were trying to figure out what it was that was about to ruin their perfectly relaxing Saturday morning.

"I've got video coming in now…" Cyborg continued to type furiously "looks like some guy with high-tech armor and a ray gun is destroyin the city." He stated this fact calmly, as if people with super-armor and ray guns wreaking havoc weren't much more interesting than the weather.

"Alright guys," Starfire watched as Robin's features hardened and his expression somehow became even more serious as he drew himself up, she always loved watching him go into leader mode "you know the deal. We've got to stop this guy before he hurts anyone. You know what to do." The other Titans all confirmed his statement and they started moving towards the elevator.

Only a few minutes later, the T-Car and R-Cycle stopped. The Titans all got out and looked around. The entire street was destroyed there were large holes in virtually every building and car, and the trees and streetlamps that used to line either side of the street all seemed to be missing.

Starfire watched as some of the storefronts burned, while others had all their windows smashed out. It struck her as odd, every window in the area seemed to be broken, but there was no glass lying on the ground, like the windows were never there. Her and the other Titans picked up their pursuit of the cause of the destruction on foot, simply following the obvious trail of destruction. They quickly caught up with their target. His gleaming armor looked like something straight out of comic book, and he had the scary-looking weapon to match.

He seemed to not have noticed the Titans yet, as he was still just firing randomly at cars, and buildings, and anything else he could set his sights on. People were on the streets, fleeing from his advance, but he seemed not to be interested in hitting any of them. Thank god, Robin thought as he soundlessly motioned his team to take up positions around him at different angles before he noticed them.

He and Cyborg started advancing right up the middle of the rode, while Raven and Beast Boy each took one side of the street and Starfire flew overhead. He though they'd catch him by surprise when the man hoisted the barrel of his large gun up onto his shoulder, and fired directly back at them. Cyborg and him dove and rolled to either side to avoid the beam and when Robin got back to his feet the man was already turned around and engaging Raven.

She encased a nearby mailbox in black energy; rending it from the ground and hurling it at him, only to watch it disintegrate when he shot it with a bright white beam. She brought up a shield as a second beam streaked toward her, it seemed to stop for a fraction of a second before she realized what was about to happen and dove out into a smashed storefront as the beam shattered through her defense. The man raised his weapon to shot at her hiding spot when a sonic beam struck him in the chest and exploded.

He staggered backwards, his movements, heavy and metallic, the servos of his screeching madly. He turned to attack the source when disc exploded on the visor of his enclosed helmet, covering him in smoke. He sent shots wildly in the two teens' directions, many of them more accurate than they should have been without visibility.

"His helmet must have infrared vision." Cyborg called to his teammates.

"What you mean like the Predator?" Beast Boy asked, and received a few beams in his direction for it.

"Beast Boy, you wanna get back in the fight!" Robin yelled angrily, drawing his bo-staff.

"Yeah, right, sorry." Beast Boy responded sheepish. He transformed into a tiger and started charging at his armored foe. The man took aim as the smoke cleared, and Beast Boy only narrowly avoided the beam sent at him by transforming into a fly.

Starfire picked now to attack, while he was distracted with Beast Boy. He hadn't seemed to notice her before now, but she would make sure he knew she was there now. She flew down at breakneck speed, a starbolt charged around her drawn back fist; she flew up to him and struck her fist into his chest, releasing the starbolt from her hand on impact, causing it to explode on his armor. She felt the armor fall away from her hand, even as it was obscured from her eyes by the smoke and dust of the explosion.

She saw it out of the corner of her eye. A massive metallic hand swinging right for her head, it was too late, she didn't have time to block it, no time to dodge it. She steeled herself for the hit. The clenched metal fist rammed into her with more force than she'd ever remembered being hit. He eyes swam in tears and lights popped as she tried to lift her head, but only managed to roll it slightly on the hard concrete floor.

She tired again and managed to sit up. She didn't even remember flying the fifteen yards from him to he sidewalk where she was sitting, but she tried to stand up and staggered backwards on unsteady legs a few feet and fell into a windowless storefront. She looked up the armored man again, and watched in slow motion as he raised his gun. She could clearly see him pull the trigger as she looked down the elaborate barrel. She watched, unable to move as a pinpoint of white light began to travel down the barrel. She saw the birdarang fly straight into the weapon and continue on through the other side, dragging wires and metal with it.

She watched as the beam emerged from the gun anyway. As it barreled through the air at her, disintegrating each molecule as it went. She watched as it passed through the empty, windowless frame of the storefront; as it encompassed her and all she could see was white light, and then nothing but blackness.

---

For the second time in as many minutes, Starfire found herself on the ground. She tried to open her eyes, but they felt like lead weights, and stubbornly resisted her every effort to open them. He head was pounding, why was she like this? The beam. The light. The dark. Maybe she was dead…no, no, she was sure being dead wouldn't hurt nearly as much as her entire body did right now. Every joint and bone ached, every mussel shouted agony. The weight of her eyes seemed to lift somewhat. She managed to crack them open.

She was lying under a wooden door, she could see it was propped up a few inches above her face by strewn rock and concrete and other debris. She tried to lift her arms to push the door away and instantly regretted her decision. Her body screamed at her as she lifted them only a few inches off the ground, she let them drop back down, and found out that also caused her a great amount of pain and she let out a small, involuntary moan.

"Guys, hey guys, I think there's a person buried in this rubble!" A nearby voice called out from somewhere behind her. She knew that voice. "I'll get you out of there, don't worry." It was Robin.

She groaned again and managed to squeak out "Robin…", she didn't try to move again, but she could tell the pain was subsiding quickly. She felt him drawn nearer, and could tell he was crouching down next to her. He grabbed hold of the door, lifted it up and threw it aside. He looked down at her and she heard a sharp intake of breath. She managed to open her eyes a little bit more and saw him stagger back a few steps.

"Starfire?" Robin's voice cracked as he whispered his question. She could see the shock heavily on his usually stony, reserved face, clearly evident, even behind the mask always attached to his eyes. He dropped to his knees and helped her sit up. "Is it really you, Starfire?"

"Yes…of course it is me, Robin." She responded, very puzzled at the look on his face and his question. She glanced away, over his shoulder and saw the other three Titans standing there, similar looks of shock on their faces.

"What is wrong, my friends?"

There was a long silence. Robin was still crouched next to her, his hands holding one of hers as he stared at her. Starfire looked from one Titan to the next, searching their faces for an answer, or at least an acknowledgement.

"Starfire…" Raven stepped forward regaining her composer and shaking off Beast Boy's hand on her shoulder "you're dead."

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Robin stared in disbelief at the spot where the beam had hit. The spot here Starfire had been sitting. But now it was just a small crater. Now she was gone.

"No…" he whispered, shaking his head "No. NO!" His cry of rage echoed up and down the street as he ran towards the armored man. His vision narrowed and blurred, he cried louder as he lunged into the attack, swinging his staff with a ferocity none of his teammates have ever witnessed him fight with before, not even against Slade. His blows all seemed to be finding their marks hard. Fury boiled at inside him, angry, rage, hatred. A lust, a pure lust for this man's blood. He was going to rip that armor off his back and strangle the life out of him with his own bare hands.

The man withered under the blows and crumpled to his feet, unable to shield his head and chest with his arms any longer. Robin cracked his chest plate, he smashed his visor, the small bespectacled face stared up at him, terror in his eyes as he beheld the raging Titan. Robin's staff snapped on the thick armor. He abandoned it and continued with his fists. He pounded on the man, in every spot he could reach without armor; he started getting his hands under it and pealing it away, striking at the revealed flesh. He punched and punched, striking into the man with everything he had, his mind held no thoughts, nothing other than one simple command to send to his mussels…'kill'.

Someone called him. Huge steel hands gripped his shoulders, dragging him back from his target, then pinned his arms to his sides as he struggled madly. Why were these hands stopping him. He had to punish the man how did this, He had to be punished, for…for, killing Starfire. The hands were shaking him. A voice was calling. Calling him, his name 'Robin'.

"ROBIN!" he blinked and saw Raven's dark eyes staring into his, tears silently streaming down from them in thin rivulets, he slumped in the massive hands still holding him fast, Cyborg stopped shaking him at once and relaxed a bit, but still held Robin tightly.

"He…he killed her Raven," Cyborg let go and Robin sunk to his knees, a deep sob escaping and racking his chest "why didn't you let me kill him?" He asked, staring into the asphalt.

She knelt down and drew him into a hug, as much for her sake as his as her own crying intensified.

"Because we knew you would regret it. We know you don't want to be a killer. That you _aren't_ a killer." Robin looked to his left and saw Beast Boy sitting on the sidewalk, leaning against one of the few remaining trees, his head in his hands.

There was a series of coughs from a few feet behind them, each worse than the last. "She might not be dead." He choked out, coughing again as spitting blood onto the ground.

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Starfire shook off Robin and got to her feet

"Well as you can clearly see, I am very much not dead." her own sense of shock and confusion deepening every second. The other Titans were just staring at the exchange between their two female members. Robin had gotten to his feet but still hadn't moved from the spot where he'd found her.

"Yes, you are…or, were…" She sighed and took another step toward the pink haired girl, who stepped back an equal distance "We all saw it happen. It was, it was months ago, Starfire. We buried you."

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A/N: Hope you liked it. More to come. 


	2. Clarke's Third Law

A/N: Great reception, thanks a lot to everyone who read and/or reviewed the first chapter. I've been trying to find a good way to seperate sections, so please bare with me.

Disclaimer: I do not own the Teen Titans.

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"What!" Robin shook his head, attempting to regain his composure. He disengaged from Raven and leap to his feet, then helped her stand, he could hear Cyborg's sonic cannon a few feet behind him open and start to slowly charge.

"There's a crater in the ground…" He coughed again as the Titans advanced on him, Beast Boy up from his spot against the tree, his eyes red. "Nothing else I shot on the ground left a crater, which could mean—" He was cut off as Robin picked him up by the neck of his under-armor body suit. His thick, horn-rimmed glasses were askew and cracked in the left lens. His nose was broken and bleeding profusely and his mouth and teeth were coated in blood.

"Which could mean what, exactly?" He did nothing to mask the cold fury of his voice.

"When you destroyed my weapon, I was firing it at her…I'm sorry I don't know why I was, I didn't want to hurt anyone, really. It was just a knee-jerk reaction!"

"**Get back to the point**!" Robin demanded; the other Titans were now sporting deadly looks, regarding their foe with complete hatred burning in their eyes.

"Well, it was originally a project to create a stable wormhole between parallel worlds…but I over charged the Hinesburg Compensator…so instead of transporting matter through wormholes…it disintegrated it." He scrunched himself up, closing his eyes, expecting the fury to be released at him, when it didn't come, he gingerly opened them and continued, answering the question Robin was about to ask "I'm James Dixon, you've never heard of me, right? I have a doctorate in quantum physics from MIT. No one cares about my work and I don't get any funding. I needed to make people listen to me. I wasn't going to hurt anyone, really." He began sobbing, Robin dropped him back to the ground, he landed with a thud and moaned from the pain of the fall. "When your weapon destroyed mine, it may have caused a short-circuit in the Compensator, and transported her to another dimension."

"How do we get her back?" Raven asked.

"You don't!" He looked around; the four Titans were standing over him, looking down at him with a mix of hatred and disgust.

"There has to be a way to get her back!" Beast Boy spoke up for the first time.

"You don't understand. There are an infinite number of parallel universes; she could have ended up in any of them. The machine was designed only for short-range trips—worlds close to our own in their histories—but even that could be hundreds of thousands, millions. You're chances of finding her are literally one in infinity!"

"We're going to look, regardless of what you say."

"You won't find her."

"Looks like the police have arrived." Robin said, looking over his shoulder at hearing the sirens. "I think we'll be paying your research lab a little visit. Good like trying to get grants from inside a prison cell, _doctor_." He put a great deal of anger and contempt onto the last word before turning and walking away, the other Titans following close behind.

---

They rode to Tower in silence, and it continued as they made their way into living room, where Robin stood with his back to them, looking out the window at the city, the still new sun breaking through the clouds and beating down on him.

"What are we gonna do, Robin?" Cyborg asked, his voice unwavering, despite the redness of his one human eye.

"We're going to find her." He stated simply, turning towards the other teens "No matter what."

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Starfire was unsure how to take in everything she had learned in the last few hours. Something about her whole position just didn't feel right; aside from the obvious of course. But everything seemed the same: the cars, the buildings, the trees—no funny colors or strange activities—the date, even the time of day; and the people, especially her friends, all seemed the same, except for the fact that, by their account, she had been dead for nearly three months.

Her head was spinning and her body felt more taxed than she'd ever felt before. She could only compare it to the first time she'd gone into battle, and been utterly trounced in combat. Luckily that had only been verse her father's best guards, only a training session. She laughed internally, only, she thought, they'd beaten her badly and made sure she felt the "sting of defeat" as her father had called it, for a few weeks afterwards.

She made no attempt to resist, or even barely comply as the other Titans helped her into the T-Car. She was almost totally lost in thought, at first they'd gotten worried about her state, but Raven had quickly assuaged their fears.

"After all," she said later, after they had gotten back to the tower and allowed Starfire back into her bedroom, "it's not every day someone learns they've been dead for ten weeks."

"But, Raven, it just doesn't make any sense." Cyborg was seated around the kitchen table with the other three Titans, a large, steaming mug of dark coffee in front of him. "I scanned the area for almost the whole hour we were there after we found her. There wasn't a damn thing unusual except a higher than normal level of neutrinos for a five block radius."

"Could the Doritos bring her back to life?" Beast Boy asked, still clutching his mug of undrunk coffee in both hands.

"_Neutrinos_. And no, neutrinos are everywhere, they're smaller than electrons and they go through anything—there's probably a few billion passing through you right now. Anyhow, they have no effect on anything around us, and as far as we know, can't raise people from the dead."

Beast Boy looked down at his own chest, his expression clearly a little disturbed by the though of billions of little things he could see or feel going through every inch of his body all the time.

They sat in silence for a few minutes, the only sounds above their slow, measured breathing the light thud of ceramic mugs and the occasional sip.

"Was it something on you end, Raven?" Robin spoke for the first time in two hours, his half empty coffee cup clutched in one hand as he continued to stare pointedly out the window to the view of the ocean.

"I don't…" she paused, looking up at Robin then back down at the table "I can't be sure."

"I want to know—" he started, he chocked for a moment, lagging just enough for the other Titans to notice, but they made no outward signs they had "I want to know if it's really her. I—We, need to know, if it really Starfire, or some magical imitation." He drained the last of his coffee and placed the mug back on the table a little harder than was necessary.

"I checked when we first found her, and again a little while after. I found no outward signs of any magic at all, dark or otherwise. I can perform more complicated and through searches…but I doubt I'll get anything new, magic powerful enough to," she seemed to be lost in thought for a moment "powerful enough to, well, any magic that powerful leaves a trace, there's no way to avoid that, and if it's there, I'd have found it already."

"It looks like the ball is in your court then, Cyborg." Robin observed, his voice as emotionless as the masked eyes that were appraising the metal teen.

---

Starfire sat down on the edge of her bed. Her bed? Was it really? She was dead, or supposed to be anyway. Something about it just didn't feel right, like she was in the room of a very close friend for the first time, comfortable, but not at ease. Something about that last battle, it had to be the cause of all of this, it was the only starting point that made any sense to her.

She was on the ground, knocked down by a powerful punch, then a point of white light, then a flash of red, more light, different colors, like an explosion, then the white light grew, and it enveloped her, and she woke up under the rubble, unable to move. The relief that had come with being discovered by her friends was quickly stripped away as she learned their version the truth.

Perhaps the evil man's gun had somehow changed the past…no, that would mean she never would have been their in the first place, or, maybe because she was there when it happened it didn't affect her future self. She shook her head and pinched the bridge of her nose while running a hand through her long pink hair, this was making her head hurt even worse, and the more she thought about it, the more it sounded like the plot to a bad science fiction book.

She sighed heavily and let herself fall backwards onto the bed. It may not be hers, but it was just as comfortable as the one she was used to. All at once the light pain that had pervaded her senses was washed away by a torrent of exhaustion and she quickly fell into a deep, fitful sleep.

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"This is it. His research laboratory." Robin's voice had returned to normal hours ago, but the Titans still had the powerfully raw emotion their leader rarely displayed on the back of their minds. They entered the after him as he threw his shoulder against the flimsy wooden door and the lock snapped out of the frame.

"Wow, look at this set up…" Cyborg said with unabashed wonder as he surveyed the scene before him. There were dozens of unique looking gadgets scattered about the spacious workshop, which was itself a strange mix of spotlessly clean, and hopelessly messy, which tools and parts strewn about nearly everywhere. Some of them spun with little arms around a stationary center beam, an electrical filed between them, others were glass balls of different sizes, various objects floating inside of them—a pencil, a watch, a frog.

The other Titans too took a moment to absorb the spectacle of the large, open room, before Robin had to snap them out their daze.

"Alright, lets get searching. Look for anything about wormholes, or anything like the weapon he had." But before the other Titans could even start carrying out his orders, Beast Boy spoke up.

"Do you mean like that right there?" He pointed lazily at a chalkboard at the other end of the room, a large diagram of the gun from earlier in the day drawn on it, surrounded by other numbers and symbols that were to hard to read properly from where they stood. The Titans made their way over to the board and gathered a few feet in front of it, while Cyborg leaned in for a closer look. It was an old way to store data, but effeftive.

"This is some heavy stuff…" Cyborg said, more to himself than his teammates.

Robin bit his tongue, allowing his technophile friend assess the work more fully before asking him questions.

After a few more minutes of silence, punctuated by Cyborg's occasionally mutters of things like "oh, wow" and "how did he!?" the metal Titan straightened up and turned to face his teammates.

"He wasn't lying." Cyborg started.

"About what?" Robin responded before Cyborg could continue with his explanation.

"He wasn't lying about his weapon, he was originally making a device to open stable wormholes, which in and of itself is theoretically impossible." Cyborg picked up the top sheet from a stack of hand-scribbled notes, considered it carefully for a moment, then threw it away and continued.

"And he wasn't lying about the Hinesburg Compensator either, he made it too powerful and instead of figuring out where every single atom in an object was, it made them all go the same place then dissipate just as quickly, essentially disintegrating it."

"But wait! He said Star wasn't disintegrated!" Beast Boy cried out.

"She wasn't. Near as I can figure from these schematics, and the parts of this math I can actually comprehend, Robin's birdarang managed to re-wire the thing as it fired, making it's last shot perform what it was originally designed for, or well, near enough to that. Like I said, he wasn't lying. Starfire is in another dimension, the problem now, is which one."

Robin listened intently, he easily understood everything Cyborg had said, but he didn't like what it meant. The more he learned about this, the more it sounded like some bad science fiction story.

"Can you reverse engineer this?" He gestured to the board.

"I have no idea. This guy has discovered things that they'll have to rewrite physics textbooks for; it's amazing he wasn't working for the government, or some big corporation. This stuff is more complex than anything I've ever scene, even just the circuitry is as complex as my own, some of it more so. I can try, but I can't guarantee anything, man."

"That's fine, just take whatever you need here back to your workshop and get cracking." Cyborg turned to gather up items as Robin turned to Raven. Do you think you could track Starfire somehow?"

"It's possible…but the way Dixon described it…I mean, I've always know there were other dimensions, we've dealt with a number of them over the last few years, but an infinite number of parallel universes, millions of worlds, millions of Starfires? Who knows?" She looked disappointed in her own answer, she didn't really want to admit the truth to even herself, Dixon had been right, their chances of finding Starfire within the realm of infinity, were decidedly not good.

"Go back to the city, right where it happened, the police have it tapped off so I'm sure it will be undisturbed. See what you can pick up there and meet us back at the tower whenever you think you're done."

"Right." She stated simply, and with a flash of dark light she was gone. Cyborg had disappeared, but returned a few moments later, his massive arms laden with a veritable mountain of papers and gadgets, he passed the huge pile to Beast Boy unceremoniously and the small green Titan nearly buckled under the weight while his knees visibly shook.

"Alright, let's get back home." Robin said, he and Cyborg turned and walked out of lab, Beast Boy unsteadily shuffling slowly along behind them.

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Robin stood silent watch over the darkened form lying on the bed in the middle of a room he had once frequented, a room he still visited, to make sure he never forgot. He watched as the shadowed figure's side rose and fell lightly as it slept. He contemplated his actions from before, he'd been overcome with emotion, he couldn't let that happen again, too much was at stake.

He fought back an urge to call out "Starfire" To wake her and tell her he was here, to tell her he was sorry, to tell her everything he'd lost the chance to say, and thought he never would regain. It was a hard impulse to fight, but his years of training with Bruce had given him the discipline necessary to do it. She turned in her bed, her back now towards him, he had been a little worried the light from the open sliding door he leaned against would wake her, but when it didn't he understood the fatigue she must have felt, especially given the story she'd told about being in a tough fight before just appearing among them.

But he didn't want to think about the circumstance of her return just now. All that mattered to him was the fact of it. The real sense of it. Her look…her voice…her touch…her smell, all the same as before. She was back, and this time he wouldn't let it happen. This time, he wouldn't let her die.

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A/N: Hope you liked it. More to come. 


	3. 72 Hours

A/N: Again, thanks to everyone who took time out of their busy schedules to read my little story. I appreciate it.

Disclaimer: I do not own Teen Titans.

* * *

"_No…NO!_ _It can't be…Starfire._" A voice sobbed. Image after image flew at her, blinding white light, armor, Robin, Raven, light up light, her friends, her friends locked in battle. Bright explosions of red and orange enveloping everything, a flash of pain stabbed at her chest and was gone, warmth and a damp cold that followed hit her then disappeared. Then herself just before she was hit by the white energy beam, she watched it come in at her in slow motion, then her eyes were enveloped by white light again. "_I won't let it happen. I promise…I can save you._" 

Starfire started and bolted upright in bed. She felt the cold sweat coating her body and wiped it from her forehead with the back of her hand. She breathed a small sigh of relief into the darkened room and tried to shake the eerie feeling she assumed had come from her dream. It was already fading out of her memory, which suited her fine, but the feeling it left behind seemed to want to linger, and kept with her even as she forced her mind out of its sleeplike state.

She got out of bed and sleepily shuffled towards her bathroom. She stopped, it wasn't really 'her' bathroom, it was in the same place, the door was the same, the light, pleasant fragrance floating out of it was the same; when she turned on the lights, it looked the same, the other Starfire even used the same conditioner as her.

But that was the problem, it was the _other Starfire_, and here, she was the _other Starfire_. She decided her need for a hot shower outweighed her existential crisis and decided to use it, again having the same feeling of being in a friend's personal space, not unwelcome, just unknown.

She turned the handle for hot water as far as it would go and waited for steam to start rising before stepping into the shower, as the water pelted over her orange skin, she sighed deeply, relaxing as much as she could, still thinking the Earth water heaters didn't get hot enough, even in another dimension.

She took her time in washing her hair, almost subconsciously wanting the scorching water to wash all her lingering feelings of fear and doubt away, but after an hour, the water began to grow cold and she shut it off.

After drying off she headed for the sink, but after taking a long hard look at the toothbrush on its side, she thought that would be going a bit too far and settled for the large bottle of mouthwash sitting opposite it.

Laying her clothes out on the disheveled bed she, and, she assumed, her other self, never made, she stared in sadness at the tattered remains of her favorite uniform. She stole a sideways glace at the closet a few feet away, on the other side of the room. Its door was open invitingly, its many articles of clothing partially visible from the cracked-open door.

Well, she'd borrowed clothes from friends before, she thought as she picked up her normal outfit off the rack, well, maybe 'took without permission' was more accurate, remembering Robin's—surprisingly comfortable—uniform; and she supposed switching bodies with Raven didn't exactly count either. Well, she had to wear something.

---

"Ok guys, we need to make things a normal as possible, her head's got to be spinning with everything that's happened, so let's not make it any worse." Cyborg said, his voice hushed as the other three Titans leaned in over the table. "Raven, try not to remind her that she…or another version of her, is dead, alright?" He commented offhandedly, only receiving a 'No shit?' glare from the purple haired teen.

"I know this whole thing is really weird and all…" Beast Boy said cautiously, rubbing the back of his head with one hand "but, uh, what are going to have for breakfast?" Raven and Robin both looked at him aghast.

"Bacon and eggs." Cyborg responded, eyeing him suspiciously.

"Dude no way! You know I don't eat bacon! Or eggs!" Beast Boy yelled, pushing back from the table and standing up.

"I don't care if you don't, because everyone else does, and they all want a real breakfast, none of that fake crap you eat!" Cyborg stood up from his chair as well, the metal teen towering over his green friend as he pointed accusingly at him.

"Oh here we go again." Raven muttered to Robin who nodded slowly in response.

"But you know I can't eat anything from animals, it's like cannibalism!"

"Good, more for us then, Hannibal." They were both shouting at each other with only small the table to separate them.

"It seems they will never be able to agree on what's for breakfast, will they?" Starfire asked as she pulled out the chair between the seated Titans and sat down in it.

Both Titans were startled for a split second before Raven responded, "Yeah, it is kind of a morning ritual."

"Makes for a good show, though." Robin stretched his arms behind him and yawned, folding one leg over the other and lying back a bit in his chair in a mock way of settling in for a long time, making Starfire giggle and Raven crack the smallest of smiles.

"And there's no way in hell that Baltar is a Cylon, and that is exactly why I'm making breakfast!" Beast Boy opened his mouth and raised his finger in protest, but fell silent. Cyborg folded his arms, a smug look of satisfaction on his face from his victory. He was about to start gloating a little bit about his superior logic when he glanced over his should and his smile vanished, replaced with very evident shock. Beast Boy had noticed Starfire sitting with Raven and Robin, enjoying the show, that's why he stopped.

"Mornin', Star," Beast Boy said cautiously, finally lowering his upright finger and arm.

"Sorry for arguing in—I mean, we didn't mean to—" Cyborg started.

"It is fine friends, the Cyborg and Beast Boy where I am from have the very same argument every morning." She cut him off, smiling broadly.

"I guess Cyborg's a jerk in every dimension, then." Beast muttered, but loud enough for everyone at the table to hear.

"Watch it, grass stain." Cyborg shot him a deadly look "So Star, anything sound good?"

"The bacon and the eggs sounds most appetizing." She licked her lips, still smiling.

"Comin' right up!" Cyborg responded enthusiastically, a huge grin now plastered across his face. He walked over towards the stove as Beast Boy mouthed a swear and went over to the fridge to get his own breakfast.

------------------------------------------

Cyborg stared into the computer screen, the cold blue light of the schematics it displayed covering the human half of his face in a glow reminiscent of the rest of his body. He typed a few keys then leaned in closer to the screen, his nose only a few inches away.

He sighed heavily and fell back in his chair, rubbing his forehead. Staring into the blueprints longer wouldn't make him understand the damned thing any better. He decided he needed a break after working nearly eleven straight hours to figure out a way reverse engineer the technology from the blueprints he'd take from the lab, but so far, he couldn't even tell if he would have the necessary materials to build the thing itself, let alone figure out how to augment its design.

He saved the notes he'd been adding to periodically and shut the computer down. As he stood up from his chair, he stretched out his arms over his head, an action no longer necessary, but one engrained on him as habit, especially as the feeling that he needed to remained.

Cyborg walked in the near darkness of his lab towards the door, hitting the button to slide it open and lazily stepping into the almost equally dark hallway. He took his time walking to the kitchen, knowing this would be the only break he would allow himself for at least another eleven hours.

The kitchen too was mostly dark, save for a single light bulb hanging over the sink. He made his way to the coffee pot and found it to be already filled with dark, black liquid. He grabbed a mug and filled it, taking a moment to breathe in the aroma steaming from his cup before taking a drink.

As he turned back towards the hallway, he was met face to face with Robin, as haggard looking as he had ever seen him, empty mug in hand at his side.

"See you found the coffee." He said, trying to grin but failing. He walked forward and extracted the pot Cyborg had just replaced.

"Yeah, it's strong."

"Batman's special 'All-Nighter' blend, twice as much caffeine as normal coffee." He filled his mug and put the pot back, looking down, then out through the window in front of him as he leaned on the counter.

"We'll find her, man." Cyborg moved a step closer and placed his enormous metal hand gently on his leader's shoulder "I know we'll find her."

The Boy Wonder sighed deeply and turned towards his friend "I know we will, I just hope we find her, we can bring her back."

---

Cyborg clicked the mouse cursor on the button in the lower right corner of the program, to run the simulation again, just to be sure. After watching the computer-generated frames move for a few seconds, before the power level gauge spiked and the wire-frame of the device exploded.

"Damnit!" He slammed his fist against the desk, his coffee mug flew into the air and smashed on the ground, it's cold, half forgotten contents splashing themselves across the floor. He looked down at his destroyed cup and then back up at the screen, it displayed 'PBE: Potential Blast Energy – 15 kilotons' he could reverse engineer the thing alright, and take out half the city in the process when the damn thing overloaded.

He grunted in anger and pushed himself away from the desk, stooping down to gather up the pieces of the broken mug. He stood up and banged his head on the underside of the desk, yelping loudly in pain and gripping the spot.

"Wait, what if I…" He sat back at the computer, pain forgotten in the flash of inspiration. He typed furiously for twenty minutes, only stopping to bring up his own notes, or the ones taken from the other lab, when he halted reading and just stared at the screen for a minute in disbelief.

He went over the section a dozen times to check and make sure he hadn't misread it. But if he had understood it correctly, then he had to tell the others right away.

He got up from his chair and ran to the door.

------------------------------------------

"So the robber tried to jump from the roof of the bank to an adjacent building, but the distance was too far and he fell down the alley between them…" she paused for effect, a trick she'd picked up from Beast Boy during her time on Earth so far, "and landed right in the middle of the next-door nursery's dumpster full of dirty diapers." Starfire giggled at her own retelling, while three of the other Titans roared with laughter and Raven pulled her hood over her head to hide her mixed expression of wanting to laugh and being totally disgusted.

"Oh, oh god Star, looks like half the time," Cyborg wiped a tear away with one large metal finger "you guys get the funny/stupid criminals."

"Yeah, I remember stopping a bank robbery just like that, only the guy just tripped over a hostage in the lobby and we never got the good part of the story." Robin continued for his teammate. The other three Titans took note of his considerably lighter mood.

"Yes, it seems that for all our similarities, there have been more than a few differences." Starfire said quietly, folding her hands in her lap and staring down at the table they were all seated around. The laughter ceased almost at once and the good humor was replaced all too quickly by the cold reality of the situation; their few minutes of story-telling escape over.

"Starfire…" Robin started, but when he seemed to be unable to complete his thought, Raven picked up.

"We looked into what happened last night, both Cyborg and I did extensive investigation and testing, and we're pretty sure that you were transported her by the beam from the energy weapon—the one from your universe that is."

"I see…" She had suspected it was something like that. Starfire looked into Raven's eyes, then around the table at the other Titans; they were all staring at her, waiting for her reaction she supposed. "Well if I came from one parallel universe, I can go back to it, can I not?"

"Well you see, that's the thing…" Cyborg started, then proceeded to explain the process that had likely transported her could not be duplicated, and even if it could, they did not have a single clue where to start. It took about fifteen minutes to disperse the information, Robin had already heard it all, but the other three teens present still needed it, and with Beast Boy interrupting every few sentences to ask a question, it was slow going. Starfire did understand the higher-level mathematics Cyborg seemed to be liberally spreading across his explanation, but she was able to understand quite quickly that getting home, if she could at all, would not be easy.

"But Raven did say she could check into any magical transportation or locater spells that might help you. Right Raven?" Cyborg stat back in his chair as he asked her.

"Well, yes, sort of, there are a few options I think we could explore and—"

"Let's not rush into anything." Robin cut the purple-haired Titan off "first, let's make sure you're ok, Starfire. Let's make sure it didn't alter your DNA or something." He joked, trying to lighten the somber mood a little and throwing Starfire a smile, which she managed to half-heartedly return.

"Robin's right, come on, well go to the infirmary and make sure you're alright. Ok?" Cyborg stood out and held out one large metal hand. Starfire took it and he helped her stand up. He led her, now a few yards behind him, to the medical bay one floor below.

It was in the same place, she noticed, but the walls seemed a little brighter. Maybe that was just her imagination, trying to over-emphasize differences for her, making sure she remembered she wasn't home just yet. Cyborg motioned for her to sit on the examination bed, the paper crinkled beneath her as she complied.

"Just some basic blood work and an X-Ray, Star. I don't think we have anything to worry about. Oh, dang it." He had been preparing to draw blood from her outstretched arm after sterilizing an area by the inside of her elbow, then trying to put the needle in and having it snap in half "forgot about that. Sorry, just a sec." He rummaged in a draw near the table for a moment, then produced a very similar looking needle, which he again tried to extract blood with.

The diamond-tipped, carbon composite needle slid in easily and extracted the blood he needed, quickly withdrawing it from the crook of the green-eyed teen's arm. He turned his back to her and placed the blood sample in a machine to analyze it, which started spinning rapidly when activated.

"Friend Cyborg," Starfire started slowly "may I ask you a question?"

"Yeah, of course, Star." His back was still towards her as he worked on getting a few X-Ray negatives ready.

"How did your Starfire die?"

------------------------------------------

Raven laid the massive book in propped against her waist down, resting it on her outstretched legs. She rubbed the bridge of her nose and reached her hand out for her mug. She found it next to her on the table and raised it to her lips. She recoiled slightly at the cold tea, replacing the mug on the table and picking the book up off her lap, she marked her place and closed the impressive tome.

The magic she had been researching yielded only a few results, and those were sketchy at best. There were spells to locate people, and others to transport them, she knew basic versions of these, but the more complex and powerful ones were very difficult to learn.

And even if she could master them, they had never really been intended with the idea of parallel universes in mind; so she had no idea if they would, or even could, work at all.

She sighed and got up from her comfortably warm armchair. She swept the mug of cold tea off the table next to it and headed for the kitchen, thinking more about the situation as she went.

"Cyborg's the technology guy, he should be able to figure this out." She whispered to herself as she walked "But if he can't figure out a way to rebuild the gun, then it becomes Magic's turn to try, but how can it find a person in another dimension?" She considered this for a moment as she arrived at the kitchen and made her way to the sing to get some fresh water; as she was filling her mug, she heard heavy footsteps thundering down the hall.

---

"Guys, guys, we've got a serious problem!" Cyborg bust into the living room and kitchen, and piece of notebook paper clutched in his hand.

"What, what is it." Robin asked, getting up from the couch and setting down the large book he was reading on a stack of at least a dozen others just as thick.

"I just found this, in his notes," He said, handing the paper to his leader, Beast Boy and Raven were now standing with them as well.

"No, are you kidding, 97 percent!" Robin yelled angrily, thrusting the crumpled paper back at the metal Titan.

"What's on it?" Raven asked, concern running deep in her usually thinly emotional voice; the half filled mug sitting forgotten on the counter.

"He worked out a mathematical formula, the physicist, for the half-life of mater in parallel universes, and determined it is cut by almost 97 percent."

"Oh my god, no!" Beast Boy exclaimed, "um, what does that mean exactly?"

"It means, stuff from one universe only lasts about 3 percent as long in another, it means stuff can't survive in another. It'll get torn to pieces." Cyborg responded.

"It means if we don't find her soon, Starfire is going to die."

* * *

A/N: Hope you liked it. Review if you can. More to come. 


	4. Blood Work and Shrapnel

A/N: Thanks to everyone who read even if they didn't reviewed, it makes writing a little bit easier.

Disclaimer: I do not own Teen Titans.

* * *

"No way, we cannot seriously be _that_ unlucky." Beast Boy threw his arms into the air. 

"Luck or not, this is where we are, Beast Boy." Robin put a hand on the green Titan's shoulder, then removed it and turned back to his other teammates "How much time does she…how much time do we have?"

"Just breathing there helps; if she eats anything there, the mater from both worlds will try to combine, it won't be a lasting bond, but it will buy us some extra time. I ran some models on it already. Three days…at the outside." His voice was strong despite the news he had to deliver.

"Alright. Cyborg, back to the lab. Raven, you and I will work through your library together." He received acknowledgement from both Titans "Beast Boy," the pointy-eared teen looked up expectantly "keep the coffee coming." After cursing rather loudly, Beast Boy followed his orders and made his way over to the coffee pot.

------------------------------------------

Cyborg tensed as soon as she asked the question, his back still turned. She had know it was going to be an uncomfortable topic, but she had to know, she couldn't just sit there and pretend it hadn't happened, not after the shock they had all expressed at her 'arrival'.

"It's…complicated." He turned back to face her, a grim look on his human features.

"Cyborg, you must understand, I need to know." She had hoped to ask either him or Raven the first chance she got alone with one of them, she steeled herself to get ready to convince him to tell her.

"I know, Star. I understand." She started to protest but then realized what he had said and remained silent.

"Well, it was almost three months ago. It was a normal day, just like any other…and just like any other normal day, the alarm rang just as we were all trying to relax."

"Ah, come on!" Beast Boy complained at the alarm as it blared and the red lights dotted around the room flashed slowly. "I just got to level 42!" He paused the game and set the control down.

"_Alright guys, nothing special about this one." Cyborg called from the computer consol after shutting off the sound to the alarm system. "Just some guys trying to rob a pair of armored cars. Whoa." He whistled "but it does look like they've got some serious firepower."_

"_What exactly do you mean by that?" Raven asked from the half-circle of four Titans around him._

"_AK-47s and looks like some hand grenades."_

"_Ok Titans, we've dealt with guys armed like this before, just keep your head and be smart. Raven, take us as close as you can without them seeing us." Robin watched as the purple-haired Titan said her magic words and black energy enveloped all five of them._

_They appeared a millisecond later on a rooftop in a circle, with robin nearest the edge._

"_Right above them, good call. __**Titans, GO!**__" At his command the Titans jumped and flew over the roof of the two-story building, the armored cars parked on next to the curb directly below them._

_The robbers had blown up two cars in front of, and behind the armored trucks to block the area off. Only the trucks, a few assorted cars, and a fuel tanker remained in between on the seven-lane street. The guards were already incapacitated, four on the ground around the trucks, one each inside the cabs, the spatter from the wounds clearly visible on the windshields. The five thieves were hurriedly piling money from the open trucks into a waiting van._

_Robin didn't give a witty introduction; it was too dangerous the way these guys were armed, so before the men even noticed, they were set upon by the five superhero teenagers._

_For a few seconds, no one in the mass of people could tell what was going on, but very quickly four of them were down. Robin had managed to knock the weapon out of his opponent's hand but the man had been able to dodge the following attack. _

_He punched, Robin ducked and spun around, sending a kick into his chest. He heard a clang of metal on metal, his boot on something else metal, as the man flew backwards a dozen yards, sliding under the tanker._

_Robin looked down at his boot, a small ring and bar of metal was stuck to it. His eyes widened._

"_GET BACK!" He turned on the spot and ran towards the armored cars. The other Titans were already closer, and it was too far, he only had a second. He was almost at the open, heavy steel door when he saw a flash of green light at the same time he felt the grenade, and in an instant the tanker go off._

_The blast didn't hit him, at least he didn't think it had. He patted himself down, quickly checking to see if he was all there. He was behind the wheelbase of the massive armored car. The other Titans looked ok, there with him, except_

"_Starfire?" He turned towards the back of the truck again, he saw the lower half of her purple boot from under it. He ran around to the other side. Starfire stood, leaning against armored car, its door slammed shut by the force of the massive blast that had blown out all the glass of buildings dozens of yards from the middle of the intersection where it had started. She stumbled a bit and lost her footing, falling backwards._

"_Starfire!" Robin caught her and gently laid her down, still holding her. Her hands were clutched over her chest; he moved them away with one hand._

"_Oh my god. Guys, Raven, get over here now!" He yelled as he looked down in horror at the jagged, four inch wide metal lodged in her chest, he could feel the other end of it, just as large, coming out the middle of her lower back. _

_The grenade had turned the tanker into a colossal version of itself, sending shrapnel everywhere. The other Titans rounded the truck and stopped abruptly as they took in the scene before them._

_Starfire looked up into Robin's eyes, tears had begun leaking through his nearly impenetrable mask. The skin of her orange face was growing paler by the second. Blood leaked out of her mouth._

"_Raven! __**Raven!**__ HELP HER!" Robin cried out. The dark-haired girl approached quickly and looked more closely at her dying friend._

"_I—I can't. There's nothing I can do at this point." She was sobbing as she said it, tears streaming down her face._

"_**What do you mean you can't do anything! She's dying Raven, help her!**__" Robin shook with rage as tears continued streaming down his face, his mask no longer preventing their free flow._

"_I can't. It's too much to heal." She sat down on the asphalt and buried her head in her hands._

_Robin looked back down at Starfire, he large green eyes even wider than normal, he saw a twinge of fear, but it vanished just as quickly, replaced by understanding, clear comprehension, and something else._

_Robin reached up and pulled off his mask and their eyes locked, tears streaming now unimpeded from his crystal-blue eyes. She opened her mouth again, trying to speak, but only mouthing the words and gurgling up more blood._

"_I love you too Starfire. Please don't go. Please." Her eyes still staring into his, grew wider and then contracted, Robin watched as the spark that had always been there, the bright-eyed wonder, the light, left her gaze. All they did now was stare, unseeingly into his own. "Please don't leave me." He heaved a strangled sob, clutching her tightly to his chest._

"She died in his arms, right there. Just like that, we lost her." Cyborg had taken a seat on a stool next to the exam table, he turned away from a rapt Starfire to rub his human eye, and felt a gentle hand on his metal shoulder.

"He blames himself, doesn't he, for her death."

"He hasn't been the same since that day. Until, well…"

"Until when?" She asked, even though she felt she already knew the answer.

"Until you arrived."

Starfire wasn't very sure about what to say next, she opened her mouth to say that she was sorry, sorry that all this had happened, sorry that the other Starfire was dead. But she was cut off by the blaring siren of the alarm.

------------------------------------------

"Raven, how do you understand all of this? It's the most confusing thing I've ever read."

"Well that book is very advanced and ancient magic, and it's a Middle English translation, I don't really understand it to well either." She conceded, setting down her own large manuscript and reaching for a huge scroll that had been thrown haphazardly on her bed with large stacks of dusty and decrepit looking leather-bound books with faded names or none at all.

"You transport us all the time, why isn't the principle the same?" Robin asked the question for the third time, and Raven was getting a little annoyed by it, but let it go, she knew he was getting desperate.

"It's because I know both the starting position and the ending position, I have to be able to visualize where we're going. And it takes a tremendous amount of energy for me to do it just in the city." Robin had gone back to reading the large leather-bound book in his hands.

"These spells are ridiculously complex. Batman taught me everything he knew about combat, and what to do in any situation. Want to know what he said about stuff like this?"

Raven looked up from the scroll, Robin didn't often talk about his past before the Titans, she just assumed it was because he wanted to prove himself on his own merit, and she sometimes forgot that he had been trained by one of best superheroes around, one who was only human.

"What?"

"If they've got guns, you can fight. If they can fly, you can fight. If they use magic, run."

---

Cyborg ran the mathematical model again, and for the twenty-second time, it came out with a range of 68-72 hours. He cursed at it and clicked to run it again. Twenty-third time's the charm, he thought.

"Guess not." He mumbled another curse as the data screen showed the same results.

He'd been searching for the last two hours for any flaw he could possibly find in that damn doctor's notes, but they were perfect, they guy was a genius; the bastard had rewritten the entire field of quantum physics, and his friend was going to die as a result.

He switched back over to working on a way to find Starfire—their Starfire—in one of the limitless number of parallel universes. Not exactly limitless anymore, however, the doctor had also come up with a formula to calculate the number of Earth's near enough to the one he occupied to have things transported to.

This had narrowed the field from infinity to eight thousand, still not a small number, but a start. Cyborg had been able to eliminate a few of these off hand, using a scanner he had built from the notes; he was able to scan for any Tameranian life signs on the planet, the 1800 or so lacking any were taken out of the list, while he placed what he thought were his best bet, the ones with two, at the top, followed by all the Earths with one, then the few planets with more than two.

It was slow going, but he had managed to narrow the search field again to one group of 4300 highly probable planets, and one group of 1900 considerably less than that.

He decided to switch course and start working again on a way to actually get her out once they found her. He'd studied the notes even harder, and even run a few low power tests, which had only succeeded in setting some paper on fire and shattering another coffee mug.

No matter what way he looked at it, the narrow frequency band the beam had to resonate neutrinos in was all but impossible to set mechanically; it only needed to hit the wavelength for an instant to establish a wormhole, but in scanning past all possible wavelengths, he was certain the machine would overload and destroy the city.

Maybe Raven would have better luck finding a way to transport her back. He didn't see any way he could at the moment, so he decided to go back to tracking her, the one thing that seemed to be going well, and pushed the transportation data aside.

------------------------------------------

"Let's get to the living room." Cyborg said, quickly getting up from his stool and walking out the door, Starfire following close behind. Just as the door fell shut, the spinning machine stopped and a sent its data to the nearby printer, which dutifully printed its results, but was forgotten as the Titans stole out of the room.

"What's going on, Rob?" Cyborg and Starfire joined the other three Teens around the computer.

"Looks like Cinderblock, Plasmus, and Overload, and they're all tearing up downtown."

"We need to stop them before anyone gets hurt. I can take us there." Raven offered.

Robin agreed and they all gathered around her. "Starfire," he started "you don't have to come if you don't—"

"You will need my help, friends, please, let me assist you in battle."

"Right, yes, of course. Raven." He nodded to the purple-haired Titan and almost instantly a wall of black energy formed around all their bodies, and they found themselves in the middle of an empty street.

A car came crashing down between them as they just barely got out of the way in time. Cinderblock had noticed their arrival.

"**Titans, go!**"

Starfire and Cyborg both unleashed a furious barrage at Cinderblock, pushing him back down the road. Overload had come over to help, but was put out of action as soon as he appeared as Raven pulled a fire hydrant out of ground and used her powers to angle a powerful jet of water straight at him.

She moved over to where Robin and Beast Boy were fighting Plasmus.

Starfire felt good. She formed starbolt after starbolt and launched them at her enemy. She was happy to forget herself in the heat of the battle, happy to let go of the whole situation swimming around in her head and just fight, something she was always confident it, something she was always good at.

Cinderblock smashed his hand into a nearby building, and flung his gargantuan hand out at her, sending chunks of concrete screaming through the air. She pulverized many of the larger ones with a stream of green energy from her eyes, but missed golf ball sized chunk and it made contact with the top right of her forehead.

She flew backwards out of his reach and shook her head to rid her vision of the spots dancing around in it, but her clear view only lasted a few seconds before blood began streaming form the gash on her head and into her right eye.

She just closed it and charged another two starbolts, but froze when a sharp pain flashed up her spine. She took another step forward and the pain returned, four fold. It seemed to attack her from all directions. It was deep in her and at the surface of her skin, all around her from every angle. She compared it to what she imagined it would be like to be at the bottom of the sea, with billions of gallons of water pressure all over your body; but her mind quickly lost any will or desire to classify the agony she was in.

The starbolts disappeared and she fell to her knees, her eyes wide. She'd never felt anything more excruciating in all her life. She wanted to scream, but the pain stole her breath, wanted to think but it shut down almost every thought she had, she wanted nothing more than to die, anything to get rid of this horrible pain.

She saw Cinderblock spot her. She saw his stony, emotionless face zero in. He had spotted her moment of weakness, and he was going to strike. She watched helplessly as bounded forward a few massive steps towards her, his hands raised high in preparation; had she been able to think of anything other than the pain enveloping her body, she would have been slightly impressed that he could move that fast.

The blood streaming down her face could not even be felt, it only obscured her vision as the pain overloaded her senses. She saw his fist only a few feet above her head, coming down rapidly, then felt herself moving to the side. Cyborg had dove in and pushed her out of the way.

The pain vanished the instant she hit the ground with Cyborg. She heard a ferocious cry and a large bang, followed by several smashing sounds and finally a massive thud. She turned her head to see Cinderblock laying sprawled out on the ground, Robin standing on him, bo-staff in hand, Raven and Beast Boy flying overhead.

"Starfire, oh god…" Robin ran over, followed by the other two. Starfire tried to push herself up, but found her strength sapped and a large metal man lying on top of her. Cyborg apologized and rolled over, releasing her.

"I owe you my life, Cyborg." She said, managing to sit up as the other Titans ran over.

"Don't worry about it. You'd have done the same for me."

"You're bleeding, are you ok? God, what happened? Are you alright?" The stream of questions from Robin was too fast for her to register everything he was saying, but she managed to calm him down by raising a hand, as he kneeled next to her, his own hand on her shoulder, concerned plastered across his face.

"Be calm Robin, this wound is only a scratch, it looks many times worse than it actually is." She wiped some of the blood out of her right eye and open it, instantly regretting her choice as the salt in her blood burned in her eye intensely. "I will be fine." She choked out, trying to rub the feeling out and blink away the inventory tears.

She felt a small, delicate had place itself on her head, it was Raven, the tips of her fingers barely touching the cut, but eliciting a wince all the same. Starfire felt a sense of soothing warmth flow into her scalp, and the pain around her forehead vanished. Raven quickly withdrew her hand after she had finished healing her, Starfire noticed that she had recoiled, almost as if she had been burned, but as she stood and turned to look at the Azarathian half-demon she noticed no unusual expression in her poised demeanor

"Come on guys, let's get back." Robin said with a sigh. A moment later, the street where the Titans had stood was empty, save for the police cars rushing in to clean up the mess.

---

Once Raven had transported the Titans back to the tower's main room, they all found seats as quickly as they could and sunk into them. The battle had take a lot more out of them than they had been expecting, not the least of which was due to another intimate, however brief, scare.

They all sat in silence for a few minutes, trying to decompress. Starfire felt like saying something, but wasn't quite sure if she should. Suddenly Cyborg jumped to his feet, his finger raised in the air, indicating to himself—the others couldn't even tell if he remembered they were there as well—that he'd forgotten something, and he quickly walked off in the direction of the infirmary.

"You know, Plasmus and Cinderblock are decent, they're a fight. But why do those guys keep breaking Overload out of jail with them?" Beast Boy asked, readjusting himself so he was no longer sliding halfway off his seat.

"Yeah, I know what you mean, it took Raven all of five seconds to take him out." Robin gestured towards his purple haired companion.

"Three seconds, thank you." She responded, the tiniest of smirks crossing her lips.

"Did I just hear that right? Did Raven make a joke?" Beast Boy was looking from Raven to Starfire to Robin, feigning surprise. "Raven, I live for those moments."

"You might want to watch your reaction if you want to make it to the next one then." Raven's eyes flashed as she glared at him. Starfire and Robin both laughed at the exchange, happy to only be spectators.

"Um, guys…" The room was instantly silent, Cyborg had come back in unnoticed, a sheet of paper in his hands. He turned to Starfire.

"Starfire, I think we have a serious problem."

* * *

A/N: I hate asking for reviews, really, I do. But, please, if you can. 


	5. Neutrinos and a Kiss

A/N: Thanks to everyone who read, it's now my second most read story, but paraxodically the least reviewed. Happy Labor Day! Enjoy the fruits of mine.

Disclaimer: Teen Titan Fans of the World Unite! You have nothing to lose but your selves. I do not own Teen Titans.

* * *

Robin slammed his fist on the table and looked up at the massive LCD screen embedded in the wall on the other side of the room for the hundredth time that hour. 35 hours. That's all they had left. 

"Man that's not healthy." Cyborg said, the worry apparent in his voice.

"It keeps me motivated. I have to remember what's at stake." Robin responded, going back to the papers and books he had laid out in front of him. He'd given up working with Raven nearly half a day ago, everything had gotten to complex for him to be any use to her, so he left with just a few of the materials that he could understand; and the ones that she said they would probably need.

Cyborg didn't respond, but just slowly walked over to where Robin was working, taking a look over his shoulder to see what his leader was working on.

"I know you wouldn't be here unless you had something, Cy." Robin turned in his chair to look up at his metal teammate.

"I think I've found a way to track her." Cyborg could tell the Boy Wonder's eyes lit up at this prospect, even behind the mask, the expression around his eyes was hard to miss, even as his mouth only allowed a semi-shocked appreciation.

"What is it, what do you have?"

------------------------------------------

"Starfire, the blood work I did on you found some, well, some really weird stuff." Starfire felt a pang of fear in her stomach, it had to be something to do with that pain she'd felt earlier. No, that didn't describe it accurately enough, the sheer agony, she'd felt earlier. If she never felt even half as much again it'd be too soon, the memory was more than enough for her. She felt her face get slightly hot as she noticed the other four Titans staring at her, a mix of concerned and interest playing across their faces, save Robin, who sat in silence, stoically observing from his chair.

"What do you mean by 'weird' friend?" She asked tentatively.

"Well I can't be 100 percent sure what it is, but it looks like your cellular structure is breaking down."

------------------------------------------

After explaining the intricate details of his system to Robin, who now felt like he'd just sat through an entire semester of particle physics classes, the two of them called Beast Boy and Raven into the living room to explain it to them as well.

"To make a long story short: the different rates of decay for the neutrinos generated in the transportation will allow us to locate her in one of the planets I've narrowed it down to." Cyborg finished, and looked at his two friends, Raven seemed to understand the idea well enough, but it looked like Beast Boy was having some problems.

"Ok, so how does this work again?" He asked, eliciting a sigh from his much larger friend.

"We can track the particles, she has the particles on her from the transport, therefore, we can track her." He stated slowly and deliberately.

"OH! Well, why didn't you just say so?" Cyborg just chose to ignore him and turned his attention to Raven.

"Alright, we've got a way to track her, can we get her out?" He asked her.

"I think I've got a way."

------------------------------------------

Cyborg had gone over what he thought was causing her 'condition' as he called. 'Condition' she thought, a rather nice way of saying 'what's killing you'. She was being torn apart from the inside; because her own body wasn't compatible with the world she was in, the elements didn't bond right, nothing worked right. It seemed like this particular Earth had a grudge against her, no matter what dimension she was from.

After hearing that she likely had a little less than thirty-six hours, based on the rate of decay he could see, she had stopped listening. She had gotten up a moment after than and simply wandered off, not even bothering to acknowledge the other four in the room. After walking without knowing where her feet were taking her, she found herself halfway up a flight of stairs. She realized she was heading for the roof, and decided that it would be as good a place as any, and continued the three flights to the top.

She pushed the door to the roof open and stepped out onto the flat concrete surface, hardened against attacks. The sun was setting out of the Pacific Ocean. How fitting, she thought, the sun was setting, and so was she. Without caring for the amount she had to squint while looking west, she sat facing the quickly sinking sun, not yet partially concealed by the horizon.

As she swung her legs over the edge, she stared down at the water below the small island of the tower, breaking harshly against its jagged rocks. The yellow orange ball of the sun reflecting in the rippling ocean farther out. She breathed in deeply and got a full blast of the sea air. She could smell the salt and seaweed, even as high up as she was. She remembered the salt in her eye from her own blood, and realized she hadn't had time to clean her face off yet; she must look like a mess.

She was about to bring her legs back over the side and go back into the tower when someone sat beside her. She looked over to see a masked face gazing out into the sunset and the sea. An expression on it she could tell was none to far from her own.

"Robin." She said, he shook his head lightly, as if awoke out of a deep thought, and turned his head towards her.

"Starfire, I know what Cyborg said. But I know we can figure something out, we always do." The same old raw confidence was there, but something else as well, she couldn't tell what, but she knew Robin, and even if this wasn't 'her' Robin, she was sure they were nearly exactly the same.

"I do not think any traditional methods will be able to help me. My cells, the molecules in me, every atom, is not from here, they are different, and they cannot sustain themselves much longer. I have to get home." She sighed and looked back out towards the sea, the sun was nearly at the horizon now.

"Cyborg said that breathing and eating things from here helped keep them stable." She could tell Robin knew the response to this statement, but wanted to believe something else anyway.

"He said it would only put off the inevitable, it is the reason I have forty hours instead of twenty."

"We can do something, Star. Nothing is inevitable. There's always another way." She could tell he was convicted, but his voice held not nearly as much hope as before.

" I just do not think—"

"We're the Teen Titans, Star. You're a Titan. We can figure it out. I can help you. I won't let this happen." He placed his hand on hers, she did not pull away.

"I want to believe you can." She looked down at the rocks far below, the sun, halfway sunk beneath the horizon catching her eyes and giving them a golden glow. He was closer now, she turned her hand over and their fingers laced.

What was she doing, this isn't the real Robin, she told herself, but he was real, he was here and she could see him, feel him…smell him. He was doing exactly what she wanted Robin to do. She turned back to face him

"I know I can, Starfire. I can save you." Their faces were only inches apart, she leaned in, then hesitated, but Robin had picked up where she left off and their lips met in the falling light. They broke after several, heated, intimate seconds, and Starfire felt her short-lived wave of happiness crushed by a tidal wave of guilt.

She scrambled quickly to her feet and apologized as she nearly ran towards the door, leaving Robin sitting stunned on the edge of roof as the last slivers of sunlight sunk beneath the ocean horizon.

------------------------------------------

"You guys remember when I ended up back in Trigon's dimension, and Robin came to rescue me?" Raven began, and the other Titans nodded; how could they forget a day like that?

"Well, I found out what it was that brought me there, specifically, at the end of opening the way for him, Trigon had put a transportation spell, I guess he just wanted me out of the way. But that's not the point." She had gotten up from her chair and had begun pacing slowly across the area in front of their semi-circular couch. "The transportation spell won't quite work for us, since the caster has to be at the point of origin for who or whatever is being transported. However, if I can open a portal to the dimension where Starfire is, we can go through and get her."

"How did you figure this out?" Cyborg asked, wanting to understand the other half of the plan a little better than just trusting it would work.

"Opening a portal isn't quite a site-to-site transport, but the principal is the same. But it takes a lot of energy, only one of us can go through it, or one of you, since I have to keep it open."

"I'll do it." Robin said, his arms folded as he sat otherwise silent in the middle of the black couch.

"No man, I can track her on my arm, I should—" Cyborg started.

"It's my fault she's where she is. It's my responsibility to get her back." He stated firmly.

"Dude, it's not your fault," Beast Boy sat straight up, fully alert "she would have died if you hadn't hit that thing, maybe I should—"

"I am not putting any more of my friends in harm's way. I'm going." The note of finality in his voice hung in the air for a moment, and the other three Titans were starkly reminded of why he was their leader. "Raven, when can you open the portal?" He turned back towards the purple-haired Titan, the hardness in his voice diminished.

"I can start now, it will take maybe an hour for me to get ready."

"Alright, get to it. Cyborg," He turned his gaze towards the metal teen as Raven walked towards the hallway to start preparations, and quietly calling Beast Boy to follow along to assist her. "How long until you can pinpoint her location?"

"Maybe six hours, five if we're lucky."

"We've only got a day left here, we're going to be cutting this real close."

"I've got about 2000 planets to search at the front of the list, the scan isn't to quick, but it does well for covering a whole planet."

"I know you can find her. Get working on it, every second counts." The two Titans walked in opposite directions, both readying themselves to find their friend.

Robin let his mind go blank as he walked, disregarding every thought that had been bombarding his mind for days, if only for a few minutes, was his best way to rest; and especially better than his short, nightmare ridden patches of sleep. But even as his legs carried him back to the crime-analyzation room he usually spent more time in than his own, a thought kept creeping back into his consciousness.

'You did it.' He shook his head. No, it wasn't his fault, he knew that, the Titan's knew that; but what if they didn't? What if they blamed him for all of this, for her death? No, she's not going to die, they were all going to find her, and he was going to bring her home, safe and sound. But would she have even needed this saving if he hadn't done this to her.

No, he told himself, no because if the birdarang hadn't hit that gun when it did, she would have been vaporized instead of transported to another dimension. But maybe she would have gotten out of the way; maybe what he did sped up the beam.

No, he reached the door and stopped, his hand grasped firmly around the biometrically activated knob, it was traveling at the speed of light, you saved her once by chance, and now you can save her again by design. He willed the thoughts out of head, and stepped inside to get ready and wait.

------------------------------------------

What had she done? Oh god, she had cheated on Robin, with Robin…It was making her head spin, a few days ago, she had been leading a normal life, well, as normal as an extraterrestrial crime-fighter's life can be, but at least at had been free of a second Robin, one who was behaving exactly as she had wished he would.

She rushed down the stairs, taking them nearly two at a time, before reaching the floor she wanted and wrenching the door open, heading straight down the hall. She was sure she was in a unique position. There's no way anyone had ever had this problem before, it was just too strange. Things were almost exactly the same here, but she was dead and Robin and the other Starfire seemed to have gotten much farther in their relationship than she had with her Robin.

She wasn't sure what to think. The kiss had felt so right, natural, and more than a little bit pleasurable, but he wasn't really her Robin, just like she wasn't really his Starfire. She gave a loud groan of frustration as she slipped her hand over the palm-reader to her door and it slid aside.

The door closed silently behind her as she made her way over to the disheveled bed and let herself fall into it.

A boy who was and wasn't her boyfriend had kissed her, and she had kissed him back. She was stuck in another dimension. And every cell in her body was on the verge of exploding. She sighed. "Life couldn't possibly get any worse."

Just as she thought she shouldn't have said that, a terribly familiar pain smashed into her. She felt like she had just been punched in the stomach my Super Man. But the anguish didn't waste its time in only one place; it spread to her chest and arms, then her legs in an instant. It was so intense she couldn't breathe.

Her vision began to pop with the intensity. She realized somewhere in the back of her mind as she writhed on the bed that it was probably nerve endings in her brain unable to handle the load and frying. Every inch of her skin felt like it was being put through a blast furnace while liquid nitrogen was poured over her at the same time. Then it was gone, almost as soon as it had started. But definitely not soon enough, she thought. She had to find a way out of this place, before it killed her.

There was a knock at the door and she sat up, regretting a second action in nearly as many seconds, as she felt extremely sore all over.

"Starfire, are you in there?" It was Robin.

------------------------------------------

"Robin, you there?" Robin startled awake, his head lifting quickly off his arms, crossed on the desk. His mask was slightly askew; he adjusted it as he picked up his communicator.

"Yeah, I'm here."

"I've got her man."

"I'll be right there." He got up and made his way toward the door.

"Go to Raven's room she said she really can't move now that she's set up."

"Gottcha." He closed his communicator and picked up his pace. He was walking nearly as fast as most average people sprint; then again, Robin was anything but 'average'.

The door was already open to Raven's room, a truly unique sight in and of itself, it lent to the gravity of the situation. Cyborg had gotten there before him; his lab was closer than Robin's own workshop. Beast Boy was already there, having helped Raven set up the intricate array of candles and magical objects. From the precision the huge intricate drawing on the floor, Robin could tell Raven had taken to that task herself.

"Robin, sit in the middle of the circle." She directed him, he complied wordlessly, he wasn't particularly fond of being at the center of a spell, but in this case, he put all his trepidation aside. As he sat cross-legged in the middle of the floor, the elaborate design around him, Raven sat at the head of the circle, folding her legs underneath her. Cyborg walked up and handed her a digital tablet, then took up a place well outside the circle next to Beast Boy.

"I think Cyborg's findings can give me a clear enough picture," She said, placing the tablet gently at her side, outside of her own part of the circle "you might end up next to her, or ten miles away."

Robin was beginning to regret his decision; another voice in his head reminded him there was no other way. "Just don't put me in the middle of the bay." He said, only half joking.

"I'll try." She closed her eyes and took a deep breath, but then opened them again "you might want to, well there's nothing to hold on to. Just get ready, this is going to be one hell of a ride." She closed her eyes again and proceeded with a chant none of the Titans were familiar with.

The lines of the circle began to glow blue. Robin felt like he was getting heavier. The light became more intense, he had to shield his eyes, the last thing he saw was Raven placing both hands together palms out, one on top of the other, and her heard her finish the incantation with a far more familiar set of words. The light got brighter even from behind the crook of his arm, then vanished.

He lowered his arm and quickly stood up. He was on a sidewalk in the city, on the edge of bay. He could see the lights of Titan's Tower a little ways off into the bay in the darkness. He looked down at the dark churning water, that was close, he thought.

He pulled out his communicator "Can you guys hear me?" He crossed his fingers and waited for a response.

"Loud and clear man!"

"Good. Raven, how long can you sustain the connection?"

"Maybe twenty minutes while its inactive like this. I can open it pretty close to you as soon as you need it, but once I do, you've got about three minutes."

"Alright, I have to get moving. Cyborg, where is she?"

"In the middle of the bay, man."

"Then she's in the tower."

"Good luck."

"Thanks, I think I just may need it."

* * *

A/N: There's only one chapter left after this one. 


	6. The Two Birds

A/N: Thanks to all my readers, even if there was only one review, people read it, and that is good motivation.

Disclaimer: I do not own Teen Titans.

* * *

"Damn, I really hope this whole thing works." Cyborg sighed, leaning back in his chair.

"You mean you don't already know all this will work?" Beast Boy shot up from his own seat, looking at the metal Titan incredulously.

"Well there's a lot of factors. He needs to find her, make sure she knows what's up, and then Raven over there's got to be able to reopen a portal strong enough to transport two people across dimensional boundaries." He finished, throwing a thumb over at the purple-haired teen sitting a few feet away. "Not to mention," he continued after a moment, "this plan is so convoluted to begin with, who knows what the odds of its success really are." He sat back up from his relaxed position, again watching the zoomed in view of map of jump city, focused on Titan's Tower, with two glowing dots on it, one red, halfway across the bay, the other blue, inside the tower.

"I can open the portal, as long as you can keep your trace on them." Raven said coolly

"Hey, he's almost to the Tower…I wonder what the other Titans are going to say, I know it'd freak me out to see a second Robin." He said offhandedly to the green Titan at his side.

"Yeah, one is definitely enough."

------------------------------------------

"Guys, is just me, or has Robin been acting a little strange the last few hours?" Beast Boy asked, staring into his coffee mug; cautiously twisting it, as though it was about to bite him.

"It's just you." Cyborg wasted no time in responding sharply.

"No, I think Beast Boy is right." She paused for a second, realizing what she had said, the other two were taking it in as well. Beast Boy opened his mouth but closed it quickly when Raven glared at him "Never thought I'd say that…but, he's right, something's different with him." She took a drink of her tea and slowly observed her two friends seated with her at the kitchen table.

"It has to be because of Starfire," Cyborg offered, anything that could make Rave agree with Beast Boy had enough merit to convince him "he's just gotten her back, and now he finds out he'll lose her again in a matter of hours."

"How long were they together for?" Beast Boy asked.

"They both had crushed on one another forever, but they were going out almost six months before…well, before it happened." Cyborg explained.

"You guys are missing the point. It's not really Starfire, not our Starfire anyway. Robin's trying to reestablish a relationship with someone who he doesn't really know." Raven set her mug down lightly on the table as she talked in a clam, near emotionless voice."But they're pretty much the same aren't they?" Best Boy scratched his head

"In a lot of ways yes, they are. But there are differences, one of the biggest being that the Starfire who is right here and now doesn't know anything about Robin and Starfire's relationship, and even if she doesn't have one with the Robin where she is from, she hasn't suddenly forgotten that the two Boy Wonders aren't the same."

"But what about Robin?" Cyborg asked her.

"We should find him, make sure he doesn't do anything they both might regret, and make sure he's ok." Raven got up from the table, pushing her chair back as she stood. The others quickly followed suit and they left the kitchen.

------------------------------------------

Robin lifted his head out of the water and took a breath, allowing him to make another few strokes. He let himself take a glance at his goal, the huge, bright T sitting atop a small rocky island; only another few hundred feet to go. It would have been fasted, if the water weren't so damned cold. He was thankful his uniform was insulated, and glad he had elected to make it quick drying, so at least he wouldn't be sloshing around for too long once he got ashore.

He reached the rock strewn island and realized the part he was at had a seven foot seawall. He cursed loudly and fished around his belt as he treaded water as best as he could with his boots on and only one arm. After locating what he wanted, he pointed the small gun at the top of the cliff face, shooting the small grappling hook up and over it. He pulled the trigger a second time and it began to haul him out of the cold, turbulent swell.

He swung a leg over the side as it hoisted him to the top and clambered over it, snagging his left sleeve on the jagged rocks, and cutting his arm in the process. He rolled over and was lying face up, staring into the overcast night sky trying to catch his breath. He ran his hands quickly through his hair a few times, to shake the water out and then tried to put it back into its original shape, meeting with some success.

Robin stood up, water was still dripping off his boots and arms and hair, buts chest and much of his legs were already fairly dry, nonetheless, the light wind that was constantly blowing made him shiver slightly. He could hear the crash of the waves against the sea wall below him, he looked up and saw the lights of the tower only a hundred feet away, he was right in front of it. He started walking to the door.

After a few steps, he froze, then made two side-steps to his right, and then vaulted himself forward, leaping over an invisible bar. When he had landed he looked behind him, back where he had just leapt over, a small outcropping of rock obscured a set of laser trip wires ad pressure sensors hidden behind them.

"At least the security emplacements are the same." He whispered to himself as he made his way to the door, avoiding half a dozen more traps and security measures along the way. 'Am I really this paranoid?' He asked himself as he discovered yet another device, making his count between the two worlds eight for eight.

He opened up the control panel next to the sealed steel door. It had an eight digit readout and a keypad with a full alphabet and numerical set. He thought for a moment, considering the panel, then typed something out quickly, filling the eight red-lit boxes with the yellow digital letters 'Starfire' and it chimed with apparent success.

"At least I'm predictable to me…" He said to himself wryly. He pressed the button to open the door when it did not slide open for him automatically and the alarm instantly went off.

"Son of a—"

---

The door slid open quietly. Starfire lifted her head up from where she had fallen on the bed. The pain she'd thought was tearing her to pieces had vanished in an instant. It had to be some sort of awful side-effect of this whole thing, as if being trapped in another dimension and about to die wasn't enough; it had to be a horribly painful death on top of it. Seemed like her luck lately. And at least it's consistent, she thought.

"Starfire, are you alright? You didn't answer and I—" Robin's voice trailed off as he took a couple steps into the room.

Starfire looked to the door, her room was dark, and the light pouring in from the hallway into the blackened space created a stark contrast, putting Robin into a shadow her eyes couldn't discern She tried to focus another second before willing herself to sit up on the bed.

"Starfire, I—" Robin seemed to lose his train of thought, or had decided that what he was going to say was not the correct thing. Starfire leaned over and hit a button on a lamp next to the bed, clicking it to life; Robin took a few more steps forward, and the door slid shut behind him, nearly silent.

"What happened was—" he started.

"Unexpected." This time she cut him off.

"Starfire, please, you have to understand." He sat down next to her on the bed, she subconsciously inched herself away a little. "It just happened, it was a reaction, I'm sorry I freaked you out. I just, it just…felt right."

Starfire blushed, thinking of the moment, and the kiss. It had felt right, nearly perfect, until her brain caught up with her instinct. Then she felt ashamed, but mostly confused.

"It was not without its…appeal." She admitted, her hands in her lap as she stared at the ground.

"Starfire, I've felt this way for a long time." He put his arm around her shoulders.

"But how could you" she shrugged off his arm, she was thinking more clearly about everything now "I have been her not more than three days." She was looking at him in the eyes now, or at least where she could guess his eyes were, behind the mask.

"I've known you forever Star. We were meant for each other. " She stared at him for a moment, her mouth slightly agape. "You're my Starfire." He said it all as though he had been asked for the time.

"Robin, I _am not_ **your** Starfire."

"But I know you Star, I love you." He leaned in, trying to kiss her again.

"I am not the same Starfire you knew. She is gone, I **am not** her!" She pushed him back and jumped to her feet, seeing Robin, this Robin, any Robin, in a way she had never imagined he could be, and never having wanted to be so far from him before. She turned on her heal and stalked out of the room as quickly as she could without running, leaving Robin sitting stunned in place for the second time in as many hours.

---

"Alright, we need to find Starfire, and Robin, and sit down and talk about this. It's gonna be hard, and we might not like what comes of it, but it has to be done." Cyborg said, letting himself go into leader mode as the Titans' second in command, his leader needed help, his friend needed help, and he wasn't about to just let him go off the deep end that easily.

"Right and how do we do that if they don't want to be 'sat down'?" Raven asked as her and Beast Boy walked slightly behind their metal companion, flanking him one either side.

"Well we'll just…we could…there's always…huh, I really don't know." He shrugged his shoulders as he stroked his chin. Just as they were nearing Starfire's room, they heard raised voices, they stopped. A moment later, the door slid open and a confused, angry looking Starfire all but ran out and headed the opposite way down the hall, seeming to not have noticed them at all.

Tears were streaming down her face from her huge, bright green eyes. Raven was about to call out to her when the alarm went off.

------------------------------------------

"He's right at the base of the tower now. Starfire's moving too, she seems to be heading away from him, I can't tell where yet though, it's hard with this thing two-dimensional."

Raven listened to Cyborg's report, he gave them every couple of minutes now, but she barely registered it as she concentrated on keeping the portal at her feet an open gateway between the two worlds. If she lost the connection now, there's no telling how long it would take to reopen it, and Starfire didn't have much time left. Raven opened her eyes and glanced at the clock on the wall. Only 12 hours left, almost within the margin of error; they could have as little as six hours. Robin better hurry, she thought, as she poured a little bit more of her slowly diminishing power into maintaining the connection.

"Hey, I'm getting high energy readings around him now, he's back on the move too, but not inside…I think he set off the alarm."

"Oh, just great." She whispered to herself.

------------------------------------------

Robin quickly produced the same grappling gun from before, he aimed it straight up, pulling the trigger. It flew in an instant to the top of the tower and hooked it when he gave it a light tug. He pulled the trigger a second time and it started taking him up. Not quite as predictable as I thought, he cursed under his breath.

"Robin, man you there?" Cyborg came in over the small earpiece he had connected wirelessly to his communicator.

"Yeah," Robin grunted as he swung himself over the ledge and onto the roof of the tower. He glanced around, even in the darkness he could tell the long flat surface was identical to the one he knew.

"What the hell is going on down there?"

"I set off the alarm, I got to the roof, I didn't think it'd be good for the other us'es to see me trying to break into the tower."

"Yeah, that'd probably mess with their heads a bit. Starfire is below you in the tower, I can't tell quite were though."

"Right, I can find her. Hey, do you think you could track the other Titans, I want to avoid any contact that I can with them."

"Yeah, let me see, I think, yeah, if I widen the search parameter…got it, I can't tell who's who, but they're all distinct yellow dots on the map. I'll zoom in on the tower to get a better view. Alright, the four of them at below you, at the front door I think… I can see some of the tower's floors on this schematic layout, but not all that well. I'll keep you as posted as I can."

"Thanks, I heading down inside." Robin turned towards the door across from him on the roof, when a voice called out from the darkness.

"Who's there?"

---

"Shit, the alarm!" Robin snapped out of his daze, sprang to his feet and ran out the door; and found himself running straight into his large metal friend. "Cyborg! What's going on?"

"I don't know. We came to talk to you…it can wait, the alarm." Cyborg turned on his heal and the four Titans ran back down the hallway, Robin in the lead.

"It's different…" Beast Boy called; raising his voice about the blaring siren they just ran past.

Cyborg checked his arm as they ran "It's the security alarm, the tower has detected an intruder." He hit a few buttons along his forearm to silence the sound, but kept the lights flashing

"An intruder? Where?" Raven asked breathlessly

"The front door, they walked right up!" Cyborg replied, as the Titans all headed for the elevator to take them down to the front door. They stepped inside, all of them barely fitting thanks to Cyborg's enormous frame. The ride down seven floors was silent, save for the soft muzak playing in the background, something none of them could quite place, some Beach Boys song.

They burst out the elevator ready for a fight, but found the small lobby empty, and the large steel front door closed.

"Shouldn't there be bad guys or something?" Beast Boy said, looking around the empty, concrete-walled room.

"Spread out guys, check the whole island." Robin said after they opened the door, again prepared for a fight but finding none. Sweep the inside too, start with the lower floors and work your way up, Cyborg." The Titans left to follow his orders and he stayed moment, something had caught his eye. The foot prints left in the shallow mud outside the control panel, he looked at the readout…only he knew that code, each Titan had their own which would only allow them access, to prevent someone else finding it out and using it. There was only one way someone else could know that code. He looked straight up the tower.

---

Starfire's mind was awash with emotions. She knew how she should feel, but she wasn't sure if that was exactly what she did feel, but then Robin had just seemed so different, so unlike himself, she didn't know what was going on.

She continued down the hallway, nearly at a run, and only stopped when it ended. She whipped her eyes and cheeks and inhaled deeply trying to calm herself down. It was only then that she noticed the alarm was going off.

She started to turn back, but then stopped mid-stride. Let them handle it, she thought, it's their tower after all, it's not like I'll be around long enough to care. She again noticed something she had missed as she turned around, and opened the door to the stairs, solving her question of where to go next.

Her steps quickened as she raced to the top, taking the stairs two steps at a time, her alien strength, speed, and agility propelling her up the few long flights in less than a minute. She reached the door and slowly turned he knob, opening it. A blast of cold air hit her as she did, it was at least 20 degrees cooler than the last time she was up here, probably only about 50 degrees outside now.

It was dark on the roof, the moon was nearly full, but its light was almost totally obscured by the heavy clouds that had recently rolled in, blanketing the entire area. Then, against the city, she saw a familiar shape shuillouted against the intense city light behind it.

"Who's there?" She called.

"Starfire? Is that you?" Robin's voice responded. He stepped forward, away from the edge. He reached into a side pocket on his belt and pulled out a glow stick, he cracked it and tossed it forward, its orange light forming an illuminated circle a few feet across in front of him, just as it landed, Starfire stepped into it.

Robin stared open mouthed for a moment. Even in her current state, in the dim orange light, as it bounced off her same color skin, and reflected in her huge green eyes, with the wind, much stronger at height than the light gust on the ground betrayed whipped her hair long red hair around her head and shoulders.

"Robin?" She asked, guarding herself even as she stepped into the light, clutching her hands into fists, but keeping them at her sides.

Robin walked forward into the light himself, the wind blowing even harder, throwing him slightly off-balance as it made the few fixtures on the roof creak under the strain, causing clunks and clinks behind him near the edge of the roof.

"Robin, is it really you?" She asked, hope flaring in her chest.

"Yes, Starfire, it's me, I came to get you out of here." He smiled broadly in the low light, "Cyborg, I found her." He said, tapping on his ear to active the hair-thin microphone along his cheek, a strong sense of relief in his voice.

"Alright! You did it—Robin behind you!" Robin spun on his feet in time to see the large, steel tipped boot swinging for his head, and only just managed to dodge by leaning backwards out of the way. A second later another blow came at his legs, knocking them out from under him. He fell onto his back and rolled out of the way as a series of kicks tried to catch him on the ground.

He finally got out of striking range and flipped himself onto his feet, staring into the darkness, trying to figure out which Titan had attacked, when his mind swiftly settled on the only real one that fit. As he caught his breath, two green glow sticks cracked to life and were tossed halfway between him and their point of origin. He stepped into the light at the same time his attacker did.

Even though he'd been expecting it, the effect was still profound. He was staring into a near perfect image of himself. The other Robin seemed to be having the same reaction and they just stared at each other, occasionally waving a hand to make sure it wasn't really a mirror.

"Holy shit…" They both muttered, which seemed to snap them out of their reverie. They jumped back out of the green sticks' glow and tried to find the other first, to get the initiate in the attack. They circled around one another in the low green light, like boxes trying to find an opening.

Then all at once they both lunged forward into attacks. Punches and kicks flew faster than Starfire could see them, especially in the low light. She watched from the edge of the orange light as the two Robins battled back and forth. Neither drew any weapons, they were going on pure fighting skill alone, and were the epitome of evenly matched. Neither landed a single blow that didn't simply glance off the blocking arm or leg as they spun around the small area, dodging each other's attacks. Quickly the small area of combat expanded. One of the green glow sticks got kicked, and skidded along the flat roof to the darkness that lay in between the two light points, now there were three small islands of light in the darkness of the roof.

The wind whipped around them wildly as they went at each other with everything they had. The city in the distance glowed a light yellow while they fought tooth and nail around the roof. Neither could gain the upper hand in the fight. Rain suddenly began pelting them mercilessly, as the clouds finally gave up their water. They grappled for a moment, then threw apart, stopping for a moment to catch their breath.

"I know why you're here!" Robin yelled, the sound of the wind and rain muffling the sound "you can't have her!"

"She isn't some object for you to possess, I don't know what happened to your Starfire, but it doesn't give you the right to take mine!" Robin launched into another attack. They passed in and out of the green and orange light. Starfire watched helplessly from the side, unsure of what to do, or if to intervene, and if she did, which one was she supposed to help, they looked the same. As they passed through the spheres of light and dark she couldn't pick out anything to tell them apart.

"Why would she have come then?" They broke apart again "fortune smiled on me and saw fit to send me back my love."

"You really have lost it! Haven't you ever heard of bad luck?" He watched the other Robin back up a few steps, but not lower his guard. He stepped on the glow stick he had thrown and was off balance for a moment, and Robin saw his chance. He leapt forward and was on top of him in an instant; he swept his legs out from under him and got him in a choke hold with both arms pinned. He had been too stunned to struggle out of it quickly enough.

Starfire watched, all she could hear was the harshly blowing wind, but she could tell they were talking to one another. One of them backed up, stumbled, she saw it just as the other Robin did, and knew the fight would be over here. She saw him trip his doppelganger and lock him in a hold. Just as she hoped it was her own Robin winning the fight, another tidal wave of pain cascaded through her body.

This time it did not start in any one place and progress, this time it occurred simultaneously all over her body, inside and out. He flesh felt like it was searing off, her mussels and organs felt like they were melting, every nerve ending in her body screamed in agony as the rain pounded on her, only amplifying the pain. She crumpled to the ground.

Robin looked over to the organ light and saw Starfire fall to the ground "Starfire!" he released the hold and scrambled over to where she lay on the ground. Just as he got to her side and knelt next to her, a disc exploded on his shoulder, sending him tumbling away across the roof.

"I can't let you take her!" The other Robin had recovered from his near loss and was on his feet, only a couple yards from where Starfire lay.

"She can't stay here!" Robin yelled back, pushing himself up of the ground, his scrapped and bloody arms shaking under the pressure. He got to his knees and brushed a hand across his ear.

"_I need her!_"

"**You're killing her**!" He got halfway to his feet when the other Robin attacked. Robin half-stepped to his left and leaned forward into a roll, arriving at Starfire in a fraction of a second "**Raven now!**" He yelled as he wrapped his arms around her and felt the ground beneath him give way and he began to fall. The last thing he heard before the silence of the transport was his own voice crying in a sorrow filled rage.

------------------------------------------

A second later they were back in the middle of the circle, Robin lying across Starfire, her legs bent underneath her to her left. He got off her almost at once but realized she wasn't breathing. He started compressing her chest immediately, ignoring everything around him as he stared into her placid face.

He kept pressing hard on her chest with his overlapped hands. His vision began to cloud, darkness bit at the edges. He felt himself growing weaker, but willed his arms to keep going. Just as the darkness too the last of his vision, he saw her buck beneath him and cough.

---

Starfire's head was killing her… She felt pain, that was a good sign, she might still be alive. In comparison to the pain from before, she all but welcomed it. She opened her eyes, and found herself staring at plain, white ceiling tiles. 'Well at least I know I'm not in hell' she thought. She turned her head slowly over, her neck cracking into the soft, white pillow. Robin was lying in a bed next to hers, only a few feet away, reading a book.

"Robin." She croaked out a whisper, her throat was extremely dry. She tried to swallow but got virtually nothing.

"Starfire!" He said quietly, but with obvious elation.

"How long have I been—?" She started to ask.

"About eight hours. Not too bad considering you were almost destroyed by quantum physics." He smiled. She returned it weekly.

"Thank you for saving me." She pulled her right arm out from under her blankets and extended it out halfway across the divide, palm up.

"You know I couldn't leave you behind." He took her hand and squeezed it tightly. He sat up sat up slightly in bed and she did the same. They leaned in over the two foot gap, they locked eyes even behind his mask, they drew closer, their noses brushed and their lips were only centimeters apart when the alarm went off. The stopped a moment, drew back an inch in reflex, then went back into the kiss.

"When we're done. I'm ripping that thing out of the wall." Robin said breathlessly.

* * *

A/N: I really liked writing this story, so I hope anyone who's made it this far did too. But if you are using this as an example of what not to do, thanks for reading anyway. 


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